


Baking Hope

by Flamingbluepanda



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Baking, Ficlet, Fluff, Hugging, M/M, Prompt Fic, SO MUCH FLUFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 16:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21497215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flamingbluepanda/pseuds/Flamingbluepanda
Summary: The story of a fruit cake(written for the Tumblr prompt "Christmas baking")
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 6
Kudos: 53





	Baking Hope

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zasteroid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zasteroid/gifts).

> Gianna sent me a prompt about christmas baking and then I was watching dancing with the stars and it actually got me very sad bc reasons and I just. Was innundated with this idea. It starts out angsty but I promise this is extremely fluffy. 
> 
> Dedicated toooooo James Van Der Beek.

Jack was… stressed. 

No, really.

There had been several weevils in the last two days- Jack has no clue why. Cardiff was the epicenter of a blizzard and everyone was huddled up inside their houses  _ except  _ the damn weevils, who kept coming out of the sewers- apparently for the sole reason of tossing Jack into snow piles.

_ Also,  _ Their new doctor was out with a broken arm. Days like this, Jack missed Owen. For all his faults and all his griping, Owen has perfect attendance. He’d come to work if he was in a full-body cast, whining the entire time. He and Ianto and Gwen all agreed, as soon as the Christmas rush was over- because of course, they’d get their yearly Christmas backlash from London- as soon as it was passed, they were retconning Brock and getting a new medical officer. The kid did his job well enough, but he was irritating and loud and never cleaned and really the Hub was messy enough without… 

And there lied the true source of Jack’s stress. 

Ianto was… Indisposed. Had been for the last 13 months (and 9 days, 10 hours, 46 minutes and a handful of seconds, not that Jack was counting.) 

Ianto had been banned from fieldwork the moment he’d been diagnosed with stage two lung cancer. Gwen had insisted on it- not because he was dying, because no one was allowed to even  _ think  _ about Ianto dying, and Jack would kill them and hide the body if he caught any of them so much as  _ thinking  _ about Ianto dead. Chemotherapy had been hard, Ianto had been exhausted, and the nausea had been  _ severe.  _

And cancer, Cancer wasn’t some alien parasite that Jack could obliterate or a time traveler he could shoot. Cancer was inside the organs that Ianto needed to  _ breathe  _ and radiation seemed to be the only thing killing it. All Jack could  _ do  _ was rub Ianto’s back when he threw up and time the coughing fits so he could tell them to the doctor. It was hell.

So yeah, Jack was stressed. So stressed that he hadn’t had time to shop for Christmas, or file a report, or decorate, or be home for  _ three days.  _

And now it was late and it was cold and Jack was  _ finally  _ going home to a bleak, undecorated flat, with a sick boyfriend and Jack was  _ tired.  _ So tired. 

For the first time in years, he desperately wanted the doctor to come and whisk him away, if only so that he could go get the cancer cure from the lab where it’s developed in 2035 _ (so close Ianto was so close and he wasn’t going to-) _ and bring it back. 

Jack sighed as he stomped his boots on the mat at the entrance of their apartment building. He checked the mailbox and then dragged himself up the stairs. 

His wet shoes slipped a little on the concrete stairs, and Jack scowled. The four flight walk up was bad enough in the summer, not to mention Ianto’s breathing being bad. The flat was great, really, but as the years went by and Jack had moved in with Ianto and the pair of them had accumulated more  _ stuff,  _ it made less and less sense for them to live here. And as more and more of their friends had babies- as they slowly, cautiously reached a point where babies might be a thing for  _ them- _ it would make more sense to move somewhere with another bedroom.

Huh. That wasn’t a terrible idea. 

Yeah, a new flat listing. Jack could pay a down payment as Ianto’s Christmas present. And Ianto would laugh and tease him and say that he “wasn’t a blood golddigger, Harkness”.

A warm feeling bloomed in Jack’s chest now that he had at least something to give to Ianto in a few weeks on Christmas morning. As he finally reached the fourth floor, he felt some of the stress dissipate. He was home, Ianto was here, they could snuggle on their cold little couch and watch movies all night. 

Jack entered the flat- and froze, amazed.

Ianto had dragged the decorations out of storage.

The Christmas tree was across from the entryway, and lights were strung everywhere. Soft music was playing and- Jack glanced upwards with a smirk. Yup, Ianto had remembered the mistletoe. 

Jack grinned, suddenly happier than he’d been in months, pulling off his coat and teasingly yelling “honey, I’m home!”

Instead of the  _ “aren’t you a sight for sore eyes”  _ that had been custom since that slightly disastrous mission in serenity plaza, Ianto yelled back “about time! It’s been three  _ days,  _ g et your butt in here!” 

Jack chuckled and placed his boots with the other shoes, walking into the kitchen to find baked goods covering the counter and Ianto standing at the coffee machine. He was in a warm pair of pajama bottoms and a floppy hat that Jack knew was soft as a cloud. Ianto had been so sad when his hair had started falling out- right up until Jack had offered to shave his head in solidarity. Ianto had laughed and asked for Jack to find him some good hats instead.

Jack beamed at him as he turned, mug in hand. 

“Hey,” Jack said, crossing the kitchen and kissing his forehead. Ianto smiled up at him, handing him the mug. “Hey.” 

Jack took a sip of his coffee as Ianto prepped his own, leaning against the counter and sighing. “What’s all this? You get someone to help you?”

“Rhys helped me get it all here, but I hung it myself. I  _ did  _ manage to decorate each year before you lived here, y’ know.”

Jack frowned “you were up on the ladder with no one here? What if something had happened?”

Ianto rolled his eyes “I’m not made of glass, Jack. And I’m sure the neighbors would have been concerned if they heard my body hit the ground.” 

“They’d just think we were having wild animal floor sex again,” Jack pointed out with a smirk, and was delighted when Ianto started laughing. 

“Yeah, it has been a while, huh?” Ianto gently bumped him with his hip as he crossed the room to grab oven mitts and clear a space. “Not bored with me yet?”

Jack frowned. “That’s not funny, Ianto. You know I’d never-“

“I know,” Ianto smiled at him over his shoulder, “really Jack, I know.”

“I love you,” Jack said, because he could and because Ianto glowed with affection when he said it. 

“Love you too, Jack-“ the timer dinged, and Ianto looked downright excited. “Which is why I hope you don’t mind that I’m gonna give you your first Christmas present early.” 

Jack blinked as Ianto bent down to take something out of the oven. “I mean, sure? What is it?” 

“I just can’t keep it to myself any longer, I absolutely can’t. Move please.”

Jack moved so that Ianto could place the baked good on the cooling rack, and Jack frowned. 

“A fruit cake? My present is a fruit cake? Ianto, sweetheart, I dunno how to tell you this nicely but fruit cake tastes like feet.”

“The fruit cake is for my  _ sister,  _ Jack. But the message on top is something you both will like.”

Jack frowned. Sure enough, a message was written in fruit on top of the cake. Jack skimmed the message- 

And the mug dropped out of his hand. It was a testament to how giddy Ianto was that he didn’t say a word about it 

Jack’s vision started to blur as he turned to Ianto with tears in his eyes. “You’re sure? I mean, the doctors, they’re 100% sure-“

“Uh-huh,” Ianto said, wiping his own tears with his hand and stepping closer. “All cured. There are no cancer cells left in my body.” 

Jack choked on a sob as he stepped forward, sweeping Ianto off his feet and into a tight hug. Ianto squeezed him back, laughing. No more chemo, no more exhaustion, his hair would grow back-

There, written on the cake in stupid pieces of fruit, was  _ happy remission,  _ and it was the best Christmas gift either of them could have asked for. 

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my tumblr www.flamingbluepanda.tumblr.com
> 
> BAIIIIII


End file.
